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The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute has published the winner’s list for the 70th Annual Pictures of the Year International Competition.

The Pictures of the Year competition started as a photographic print contest in 1944, and with tens of thousands of photographic entries the POYi competition has grown to become one of the premier international photojournalism competitions.

The Los Angeles Times is proud to announce that we have been awarded first place in the best website category. Mediastorm and Time magazine were awarded second and third place, respectively.

Times photojournalist Liz Baylen was awarded numerous prizes, including documentary project of the year for her work in “Dying for Relief,” A Times investigation that found a disproportionate number of deaths linked to a small number of doctors prescribing medications, an epidemic that kills more people than heroin and cocaine. Baylen was also awarded third place in the feature multimedia category for “Bitter Pills,” an individual video from the same series. All in all, Baylen’s unique and emotional storytelling has garnered her the title of POYi’s multimedia photographer of the year. Times photographer Rick Loomis was awarded second place in the multimedia photographer of the year category for his work on his massively scaled “Beyond 7 Billion” series, a project that took Los Angeles Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss and staff photographer Rick Loomis across Africa and Asia to document the causes and consequences of rapid population growth.

Among other notable Times wins at POYi70: The “Beyond 7 Billion” series was second runner-up in the documentary project of the year category. Armed with five cameras, shooting over 4,500 photographs, Times photographer Bryan Chan’s “Space Shuttle Endeavour’s trek across L.A.” compressed Endeavour’s final journey from Inglewood to the California Science Center into a three-minute chronicle that shows the Southland’s excitement over its new resident.

Accounting a fateful February 2012 avalanche in the Washington’s Cascade Mountains that would engulf 16 of the nation’s top skiers and snowboarders, “Snowfall: Avalanche at Tunnel Creek” stood out as one of the most talked-about multimedia projects of the year. Led by New York Times sports editor Joe Sexton, who saw the multimedia potential, “Snowfall” was a project that took a concerted effort from the writer, graphics editors and multimedia producers to create a seamless integration of John Branch’s 18,000-word story, interactive graphics showing the destructive path of roughly 11,000 pounds of snow barreling down the mountain, and videos that include first-person accounts of being swept up in the avalanche. The project is a testament to the collaborative efforts of the New York Times.

In the western part of rural Ethiopia, some of the poorest people in the world depend on Aira Hospital, originally set up in 1928. German missionaries soon realized they could not spread their Gospel while the Ethiopian people were struggling to survive. “Serving the Whole Person” is a beautifully filmed Bombay Flying Club production that explores one man’s sense of duty to help those in need. Dr. Erik Erichsen is dedicated to doing a job that nobody wants to do. Despite the lack of money and a constant deluge of patients, Dr. Erichsen and his team of local colleagues have been constantly on duty for the last six years, bound by a sense of responsibility; they are not able to leave.

Part of the “Vanishing Mind” series, a New York Times project examining the worldwide struggle to find answers about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, photographer Béatrice de Géa’s “In Love and Loss” takes us through the emotional journey of Ruth French as she watches her husband, Michael, slip away before her eyes. Michael is suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a poorly understood illness that deteriorates the brain. It is an untreatable fatal illness that that has afflicted 50,000 to 60,000 people in the United States. “In Love and Loss” is as much a story of loss and letting go as it is a story of love.

“Heroin in Denver: The Story of Alice and Iris” delves into the lives of a young couple addicted to heroin. The piece reveals a young family torn apart by addiction. After an overdose on her 19th birthday that left Alice unconscious and holding her baby, their child was taken into the custody of child protective services. Losing custody of their child would cause pain and mental anguish the couple would often quell with more heroin. Their story is one of holding on, holding onto each other through the struggles of withdrawal, holding onto each other in their addiction; it is a relationship that binds.

“The Lions of Tawhid” is a chilling first-person account of New York Times journalist C.J. Chivers spending five days with the Lions of Tawhid as they plan to destroy an army checkpoint at the entrance of Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.

FIRST PLACE SPORTS MULTIMEDIA STORYTREY’S TEAM
Mahala Gaylord, the Denver Post

“Trey’s Team” is a story of brotherhood. In the small town of Kersy, Colo., football player Trey Johnson wanted to be the hero. During a game against their rival Eaton, Trey took a seemingly normal hit that would put him into a 12-day medical coma. After initially shaking it off, Trey walked away, but teammates noticed that he wasn’t quite himself. Fellow players made the call to tell the coaches to check up on him. That decision by his teammates ended up saving his life.

“Chasing Obama” is a behind-the-scenes look at Reuters photographer Jason Reed’s third presidential tour, this time photographing President Obama’s 2012 journey to reelection. It is a blurred tour across America, what Reed describes as “An addictive, never-ending merry-go-round” of shooting, editing and filing, 20-hour workdays, a never-ending gantlet of fundraisers, campaign rallies and special appearances, catching moments of rest, while flying to the next destination.